Corona charged aerosol detector non-uniform response factors of purified alcohol ethoxylated homologues using liquid chromatography.

Surfactants are used in various applications: cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, environmental, etc. Many of these compounds are polydisperse, and because of this intrinsic polydispersity, it is essential to have a universal detector with a uniform response to quantify them in a simple way. Indeed, Charged Aerosol Detector (CAD) was presented as a universal detector with a uniform response. Thus, in the present study, the CAD response, in a High-Performance Liquid Chromatography - CAD configuration (HPLCCAD), was evaluated using purified alcohol ethoxylated surfactants. A semi-preparative liquid chromatography step using a Hydrophilic interaction chromatography (HILIC) bare silica column (150 mm, 4.6 mm, 2.6 µm) was implemented to prepare eleven homologues of BrijC10, a nonionic surfactant. These homologues differed only by the number of ethylene oxide units. BrijC10 homologues were analyzed by HPLCCAD, using a HILIC bare silica column (150 mm, 2.1 mm, 2.6 µm) to determine the HPLCCAD response factors of purified homologues. From the calibration curves (from 100 to 500 mg.kg), their response factors were estimated: differences in response factors were observed and a maximum difference in response factors of 3.6 was obtained. Thus, it could be concluded that CAD hyphenated to HILIC separation did not present a uniform response for this homologue's distribution.